La Corda D'Oro Crescendo

Written by HarukaKou

Disclaimer: We do not own La Corda d'oro ^^

This book is dedicated to:

My precious parents, who gave me a wondrous childhood blessed with imaginary elephants and a real beagle,
a farm of wildflowers and mountain rainbows, tree climbing dress up dolls, friendly brown caterpillars-
And most importantly- a big sister who dared to dream big dreams that unlocked the magical world of Imagination
for a lifetime set to the glorious music God's Inspiration gives us glimpses of-

Life's symphony, called Love...

Chapter 1: "Into the Blue Ether..."

It could not be a more dismal overcast day, despite the unusually warm weather blowing in this blustery Vienna tree-lined street. The forecasted snows had not yet fallen, but the change in season as Autumn transformed into Winter's dull scenery was enough to depress many stouter a heart than of this particular stroller.

The slender figure of a striking young man pauses in his slow paced trek across the deadened grasses. His gaze travels upward, but not necessarily focusing on the House Doebling apartment high-rise that loomed through the grayness he was heading towards. No, it was the bleak horizon itself that caught his attention-or more precisely-his inattention.

It was far too often now that foreign exchange student Tsukimori Len found himself in a dazed slump. The famed city of Vienna, for all its musical and artistic merits of inspiration and genius could never fulfill the place in a young heart that longed for his true love, miles and miles away, beyond the gray sky that separated them. This was such a day for Tsukimori Len. Perhaps his musical skills and knowledge had expanded since he left Japan for the wide experience of the artistic capital of the world, but so did his loneliness. And that, amidst his violinist's genius, was reflected in his playing.

This was such a day for Tsukimori Len. Perhaps his musical skills and knowledge had expanded since he left Japan for the wide experience of the artistic capital of the world, but so did his loneliness. And that, amidst his violinist's genius, was reflected in his playing. Despite glowing reports and high placed respect and recommendations by many of his Austrian music school teachers at the Vienna Conservatory for Music he attended, not a one of their praises of his talented performances was as meaningful to him as a single girl's gentle approving applause at his music. In his eyes, no one could ever touch the irreplaceable emotion of her smile.

"There you are, Tsukimori-kun! I wondered where you had gotten off to," Ousaki Shinobu's friendly face was filled with concern for his roommate. The twenty-something older man had come to feel this way more and more, over the past few months. For despite the ice blue lad's impeccable grades and skillful playing, Ousaki could see a building sense of empty triumphs and useless downhearted successes. It wasn't the highbrow musical teachers' praises that Tsukimori Len longed for. It wasn't the fame and fortune offering public he really played for. It was all still for the one girl who gave light to Tsukimori's dull world.

Without so much as a passing word or greeting nod of acknowledgement to his older flatmate, a quite absorbed in his own thoughts, a solemn Tsukimori Len crosses the room to gaze forlornly through the window. His finger-run-through blue hair a mess by now, the disheveled man pensively loosens his tie and button up shirt then brushes back the curtains with a yearning backhand, as if the darkened sky held some secret desire just beyond his reach.

Because it did. With a lonely sigh, Tsukimori unconsciously seeks out the one constant companion he has come to rely on as steady partner for more years of his eighteen birthdays than the musical genius remembered.

The violin had been a part of him since such an early age, with a skill so remarkable, it was startling, for it came naturally to this gifted child of two renowned artists in the musical field as his accomplished violinist father and celebrated pianist mother Hamai Misa.

But the pure skill with the instrument of his early youth had developed into a full-blown matured passion in these past two years. A passion that was no longer limited to Len's rendering of his violin, due solely to the fact his once still heart was moved to be inspired by another's love.

As if drawn by an unseen magnetic force half a world away, Len had mindlessly drifted over to his music case and subsequently lifted its golden oak to lean his chin on its rest, by rote. Yet he was so utterly distraught and disoriented, that the queen of all musical instruments, his violin, like the clouded face of the moon, refused him refuge tonight, Len's bow unable to even strike the first note with his heart so encompassed by sad loneliness.

His dejected eyes, instead of drawing his bow across his signature instrument, stare ahead dully, as if the predominant part of his mind was located somewhere else across the night sky entirely. Thoroughly engrossed in cherished memories, Tsukimori envisions what she was doing right now, thinking right now, feeling right now- until her sparkling aura envelops his dispirited heart, as his lips in his breathy melodic tones part with her name mutely unspoken upon them...

"...Kahoko..." Len could suddenly feel her warmth, almost taste her sweet kisses, and hear her unique tone color, as if she were beside him again. There was no one who knew his soul more intimately, the bond of music's golden cord linking them together in ways that went further than his comprehension.

For when she smiled and he looked into the golden sun that rose in each of her eyes, it was there and only there that Len could see the truth reflected in his own mind. The innocence of an unpretentious girl who opened up new wondrous worlds to him, performed an eternal duet that reverberated in the music for her alone that echoed through his soul...

And the instrument that bore the mantle of their legendary Violin Romance begins to softly serenade a simple 'Ave Maria' as it did then, its plaintive solitary tune travelling beyond the surly bonds of physical distance and through the intangible blue ether...

Noting the particular depth of the taciturn mood turned melancholy as he comes to stand alongside his errant friend, Ousaki adjusts his glasses with a worried brow, following Tsukimori's silent gaze upwards at the empty sky. It was breaking Ousaki's heart to see strong-minded Tsukimori like this, day after day, month after passing month. There was such loneliness and longing in that face, as confused eyes seemed to be straining to glimpse something he knew existed there, but was always just beyond his reach. Tender Ousaki knew just what that something was and also just what to do about it. After all, Tsukimori's parents had asked him to accompany their awkward son and keep a helpful eye on him-to be the friend Tsukimori was completely socially inept at making.

Tsukimori-kun...I know how much you miss her...your Hino-san is a very special young woman...He thinks to himself, smiling inwardly at the thought of sweet-faced girl patiently awaiting Len back home in Japan.

So right there and then, Shinobu Ousaki decided to be that friend. The truest kind, who did what was right for his friend's heart, ignoring whatever opposition or obstacles stood in his way.

He knew the what. Now all Ousaki had to do was figure out the how.

On the other side of the coin...

R-ring! R-ring! R-ring! R-ring...

Click.

The sun starts to set over the hilly Eastern Japanese prefecture of Kanagawa, the falling dusk soon pervading the Ferris University private music rooms that she often haunted. Hino Kahoko dejectedly puts her cell phone back into the amply filled music bag. She stuffs the crumpled overused practice sheets she'd been doggedly working on in, as if they were nothing more than used empty wrapping paper after the presents had been extracted from them.

That's exactly how her heart felt about this time of day lately, as if all the glitter and shine it once had, had been ripped from it. Well, maybe that was a bit overdramatic, but Kahoko did feel the drama of love, separation and longing all too acutely.

It had been two years since he left for Vienna, and she has lived each day just to hear the sound of his voice for those few precious moments on the phone once or twice a week. Every other moment was spent improving her skills at the only thing that made her feel close to him, as if his spirit was somehow inside her whenever she played the violin.

So play and play and play she must, as Hino spent each night and day hard at practice, her musical skills indeed improving as she seemed to channel her Len's genius, their bond so strong. But that still didn't make it easy for a girl in love to have not a glimmer of hope of being with her sweetheart again for at least another two years - or maybe more!

Surely he'll be a success, and then he'll have to stay abroad for who knows when! How long until we're together again? I must work harder, so I can be good enough to join him someday! Someday...

She unconsciously clutches the two gold and silver rings entwined at her neck, as she replays the tender scene when a certain blue-haired violinist had bestowed it upon her. With tears in her eyes, then, the same as now, Hino still could feel Tsukimori's thin, musical fingers slip the necklace around her neck, assuring her that it wasn't a promise he required of her-just a hope that someday she would put it on where it belonged and that would show him when she was ready for it to be forever. Lost in this daydream about Tsukimori, she leaves the practice room where she spent most of her current life.

She starts her trudging walk home, absentmindedly taking the long way by route of Seiso. Each passed gate was a point of reminiscence of a past event with Tsukimori. Each step was a walk down memory lane.

Oh, Seiso… I wish those days never ended. We were so happy there… I wish... I wish...

"Oh!" Lost in her own thoughts, halfway down the hill, Hino didn't know if it was her inattentive faults or that of the elbow jostling her. Either way, the result was flying papers on the wind, bouncing purse and schoolbags rolling down the hill in a general mess.

"Sorry! Sorry! Sorry! Hino-chan! In a hurry! Gotta get to work! Can't stop! Already late! Sorry! Sorry!" In a flurry of apologies, picking up handfuls of papers, bags and poor discarded purses and ribbons like a Speedy Gonzales whirlwind, Hino catches just the flash of that famous Hihara Kazuki smile in her flustered direction. He had knocked her down and then righted her again in a matter of seconds. And by the blink of an eye's end, Hihara was gone, dashing down the hill at breakneck speed, dust kicking up in his speedy wake.

"Hee hee…hee," Hino tries to giggle at the strange event, though finding it not truly funny. No one seemed to ever have much time for her anymore, even her old friend. She hadn't seen the busy Seiso OB for...

…Has it been as long as last Christmas? Now that I'm at University, I rarely see anyone. I mean, Mori-san is my school mate and she tries... she and Kaji-kun who's now a student at Ferris' male branch, Meiji University, both do... but...

And then, there was that park, there was that cherry tree, standing still and cold before her. Hino could hear the leaf whistle he made still echoing in her head from two years ago.

"That is...a little one will be fine. Right now, as I blew that leaf, I remembered how delighted Mother was as Father told me how...I miss those times..."

And so does a nostalgic Kahoko as the pent-up tears won't stop flowing. She now begins sobbing as she collapses against the tree, exhausted both mentally and physically, practicing day and night, and pining for him every second in between.

"Hino! Are you all right!?" Her worst nightmare come true, the gruff voice signaling to her that the last person she wanted to find her in a puddle of self-pitying tears over the man who he once deemed a stuck up bitter rival was hovering near.

No, no, no...not him…

Tsuchiura Ryotaro had not expected to find his ex-classmate sobbing on an autumn saddened tree. Was she physically hurt? Was she so distressed over being abandoned by her so-called devoted lover? To the point of the strong-willed redhead being driven to tears?